Post by antigua on Mar 16, 2019 19:08:28 GMT -5
I'm cross posting this from Strat Talk because it might not make sense to install $300 pickups in a $300 Squier, a $60 set is another story.
Donlis is a company based in Shenzhen China, and they've been doing a fairly good job of creating pickups that are both cheap and perform very similar to, if not the same as domestically produced pickups costing hundreds of dollars. The easiest way to find Donlis pickups is be searching AliExpress, but it also appears that an ebay seller called "guitarmadness" resells the same pickups stateside for a small markup.
These two pickups from Donlis, the DSH and the DSHA, are basically cheap versions of Seymour Duncan't Little 59 or JB Jr. pickups, which are single coil sized humbuckers with twelve little screws that are threaded into "blades" which can only be seen with the covers removed. The electrical values of the Donlis versions appear to be closer to the JB Jr and the newly released "Red Devil" set.
They Donlis not constructed exactly the same way, as Seymour Duncan converted to a PCB style construction. The Donlis pickups follow the older, simpler design, and have a removable cover, which can be swapped for different colored covers, just like DiMarzio's blade construction. They are legitimately good pickups, especially when accounting for the difference in price, currently $20 for the Donlis, versus $85 for the Little '59. I've done a detailed review of the Little 59 guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7905/seymour-duncan-little-analysis-review , and in looking at the pictures with the covers removed, you can see that Donlis copied the Seymour Duncan design very closely. Maybe the most notable difference is evident from the pictures, the plastic cover of the Donlis pickups don't seem to be made to a high tolerate, the little holes where the screws poke out have little frays, and the plastic has a matte texture rather than a shiny luster, like the Duncans. Also, and this is a big one, the Seymour Duncans will fit into a pick guard without modification, but in order to fit the Donlis, the pickgaurd has to have it's holes cut to accommodate the corners, which of course is a non reversible process.
The two pickups have about the same DC resistance, the main difference being that the DSH has a ceramic bar magnet, while the DSH"A" has an AlNiCo 5 bar. Though the AlNiCo bar is small, it is large compared to the coils, so it does have a noteworthy impact on the electrical values, where as ceramic magnets are essentially inert and do not. The inductance of the model with the AlNiCo bar is more than one henry greater, and the loaded resonant peak is 160Hz lower, even though the DC resistance suggests it might actually have less wire on its bobbins. Like the DSHA, Seymour Duncan's new Red Devil features an AlNiCo 5 bar and has a spec'd DC resistance that is within 250 ohms of the DSHA, so it appears that these pickups are probably very much alike.
A big difference between the Donlis sets and the Seymour Duncans in terms of their electrical values is that the Donlis pickups have a much lower capacitance, only ~140pF to the Little 59's ~300pF, and in this case the cause is apparent, you can see in the underside pictures that the Donlin blades are not electrically grounded, which prevents capacitive coupling between the blades and the coils. This causes the Donlis pickups to have a higher resonant peak despite the fact that they also have a higher inductance. The tradeoff is that the Donlis might be a little noisier due to the blades not being grounded, but I won't know until I've installed them. Another upside of the lower capacitance is that the split (and parallel) wiring mode has a substantially higher resonant peak as well.
The Little '59, and all of these pickups, are marketed as being miniature replacements for full sized humbuckers, but once thing that becomes apparent if you compared the electrical values is that these little humbuckers tend to have a higher inductance / lower resonant peak. Due to a lack of comb filtering effect, a pickup sized like a "single coil" is naturally brighter, and so I presume they make the pickups hotter in order to offset that natural brightness, but it's only an approximation at best, and these pickups aren't able to genuinely match the transfer characteristic of a PAF sized pickup.
Based on these measures of electrical value and quality, I think the Donlis little humbucker knockoffs are a good purchase, but between the version with the AlNiCo 5 and the ceramic, I would definitely suggest the ceramic, as it produced a much higher flux density at the strings, and doesn't cause a substantial increase in the inductance. The measured Gauss at the top of the AlNiCo 5 pickup was 250G, and 650G with the ceramic magnet. Even with typical humbuckers the difference between AlNiCo and ceramic is not this extreme, and the reason is most likely that the AlNiCo bar is relatively short, and AlNiCo works a lot better when it has a length that is at least four times greater than its width, due to a its low coercivity. Ceramic, on the other hand, works equally well with either shape due to its high coercivity. Therefore it's not a surprise to see ceramic out-perform AlNiCo so handily in this context, and in fact the majority of blade style humbucker made since the 80's have feature ceramic magnets. The use of AlNiCo in this context is a rather new occurrence, with the new "Red Devil" set and these Chinese imitations.
I bought one of each pickup to see which I would like to replace a set of SSL-5's I have in another Strat, and I would lean towards the ceramics, but I'm not psyched about having to cut holes in a pickgaurd, so I might pass on them for the time being.
Donlis DSH-IV
- DC Resistance: 14.9K ohms
- Measured L: 8.648H split: 3.182H
- Calculated C: 144pF (154 - 10)
- Gauss: 650G (ceramic)
Series unloaded: dV: 7.2dB f: 4.36kHz (black)
Series loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 1.5dB f: 1.99kHz (blue)
Split unloaded: dV: 2.0dB f: 7.05kHz (red)
Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV:-1.1dB f: 3.55kHz (green)
Donlis DSHA-IV
- DC Resistance: 14.2K ohms
- Measured L: 9.710H split: 3.424H
- Calculated C: 147pF (157 - 10)
- Gauss: 250G (AlNiCo 5)
Series unloaded: dV: 5.7dB f: 4.08kHz (black)
Series loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 0.7dB f: 1.83kHz (blue)
Split unloaded: dV: 0.6dB f: 6.73kHz (red)
Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 2.8dB f: 3.40kHz (green)
The "split mode" plot lines of these plots shows a large dip, and this is because for this test I connected the ground and the split point, which is what usually happens with most split wiring circuits that shunt to ground. When the second coil maintains electrical continuity, it become a source of eddy currents in relation to the primary coil. If the second coil is wire to be disconnected, you will get about +5dB in output at the resonant peak, a difference that would be clearly audible.
Donlis is a company based in Shenzhen China, and they've been doing a fairly good job of creating pickups that are both cheap and perform very similar to, if not the same as domestically produced pickups costing hundreds of dollars. The easiest way to find Donlis pickups is be searching AliExpress, but it also appears that an ebay seller called "guitarmadness" resells the same pickups stateside for a small markup.
These two pickups from Donlis, the DSH and the DSHA, are basically cheap versions of Seymour Duncan't Little 59 or JB Jr. pickups, which are single coil sized humbuckers with twelve little screws that are threaded into "blades" which can only be seen with the covers removed. The electrical values of the Donlis versions appear to be closer to the JB Jr and the newly released "Red Devil" set.
They Donlis not constructed exactly the same way, as Seymour Duncan converted to a PCB style construction. The Donlis pickups follow the older, simpler design, and have a removable cover, which can be swapped for different colored covers, just like DiMarzio's blade construction. They are legitimately good pickups, especially when accounting for the difference in price, currently $20 for the Donlis, versus $85 for the Little '59. I've done a detailed review of the Little 59 guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7905/seymour-duncan-little-analysis-review , and in looking at the pictures with the covers removed, you can see that Donlis copied the Seymour Duncan design very closely. Maybe the most notable difference is evident from the pictures, the plastic cover of the Donlis pickups don't seem to be made to a high tolerate, the little holes where the screws poke out have little frays, and the plastic has a matte texture rather than a shiny luster, like the Duncans. Also, and this is a big one, the Seymour Duncans will fit into a pick guard without modification, but in order to fit the Donlis, the pickgaurd has to have it's holes cut to accommodate the corners, which of course is a non reversible process.
The two pickups have about the same DC resistance, the main difference being that the DSH has a ceramic bar magnet, while the DSH"A" has an AlNiCo 5 bar. Though the AlNiCo bar is small, it is large compared to the coils, so it does have a noteworthy impact on the electrical values, where as ceramic magnets are essentially inert and do not. The inductance of the model with the AlNiCo bar is more than one henry greater, and the loaded resonant peak is 160Hz lower, even though the DC resistance suggests it might actually have less wire on its bobbins. Like the DSHA, Seymour Duncan's new Red Devil features an AlNiCo 5 bar and has a spec'd DC resistance that is within 250 ohms of the DSHA, so it appears that these pickups are probably very much alike.
A big difference between the Donlis sets and the Seymour Duncans in terms of their electrical values is that the Donlis pickups have a much lower capacitance, only ~140pF to the Little 59's ~300pF, and in this case the cause is apparent, you can see in the underside pictures that the Donlin blades are not electrically grounded, which prevents capacitive coupling between the blades and the coils. This causes the Donlis pickups to have a higher resonant peak despite the fact that they also have a higher inductance. The tradeoff is that the Donlis might be a little noisier due to the blades not being grounded, but I won't know until I've installed them. Another upside of the lower capacitance is that the split (and parallel) wiring mode has a substantially higher resonant peak as well.
The Little '59, and all of these pickups, are marketed as being miniature replacements for full sized humbuckers, but once thing that becomes apparent if you compared the electrical values is that these little humbuckers tend to have a higher inductance / lower resonant peak. Due to a lack of comb filtering effect, a pickup sized like a "single coil" is naturally brighter, and so I presume they make the pickups hotter in order to offset that natural brightness, but it's only an approximation at best, and these pickups aren't able to genuinely match the transfer characteristic of a PAF sized pickup.
Based on these measures of electrical value and quality, I think the Donlis little humbucker knockoffs are a good purchase, but between the version with the AlNiCo 5 and the ceramic, I would definitely suggest the ceramic, as it produced a much higher flux density at the strings, and doesn't cause a substantial increase in the inductance. The measured Gauss at the top of the AlNiCo 5 pickup was 250G, and 650G with the ceramic magnet. Even with typical humbuckers the difference between AlNiCo and ceramic is not this extreme, and the reason is most likely that the AlNiCo bar is relatively short, and AlNiCo works a lot better when it has a length that is at least four times greater than its width, due to a its low coercivity. Ceramic, on the other hand, works equally well with either shape due to its high coercivity. Therefore it's not a surprise to see ceramic out-perform AlNiCo so handily in this context, and in fact the majority of blade style humbucker made since the 80's have feature ceramic magnets. The use of AlNiCo in this context is a rather new occurrence, with the new "Red Devil" set and these Chinese imitations.
I bought one of each pickup to see which I would like to replace a set of SSL-5's I have in another Strat, and I would lean towards the ceramics, but I'm not psyched about having to cut holes in a pickgaurd, so I might pass on them for the time being.
Donlis DSH-IV
- DC Resistance: 14.9K ohms
- Measured L: 8.648H split: 3.182H
- Calculated C: 144pF (154 - 10)
- Gauss: 650G (ceramic)
Series unloaded: dV: 7.2dB f: 4.36kHz (black)
Series loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 1.5dB f: 1.99kHz (blue)
Split unloaded: dV: 2.0dB f: 7.05kHz (red)
Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV:-1.1dB f: 3.55kHz (green)
Donlis DSHA-IV
- DC Resistance: 14.2K ohms
- Measured L: 9.710H split: 3.424H
- Calculated C: 147pF (157 - 10)
- Gauss: 250G (AlNiCo 5)
Series unloaded: dV: 5.7dB f: 4.08kHz (black)
Series loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 0.7dB f: 1.83kHz (blue)
Split unloaded: dV: 0.6dB f: 6.73kHz (red)
Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 2.8dB f: 3.40kHz (green)
The "split mode" plot lines of these plots shows a large dip, and this is because for this test I connected the ground and the split point, which is what usually happens with most split wiring circuits that shunt to ground. When the second coil maintains electrical continuity, it become a source of eddy currents in relation to the primary coil. If the second coil is wire to be disconnected, you will get about +5dB in output at the resonant peak, a difference that would be clearly audible.